No one likes to be dealt a bad deal. Have you ever been caught in a situation that you never planned for? Whenever we’re confronted with a “bad break” or “bad luck” or we’ve been dealt a “bad deal”, whatever the necessary aphorism may be, we feel violated and maybe even helpless. We need answers so we immediately begin to analyze the situation to try and understand, “Where did things go wrong?” or “What could we have done differently to not have to go through this mess?” Let’s face it, we’re not talking about minor inconveniences. We can handle those just fine on our own, or so we think. What I’m ruminating over are the hard things that really set us back. The loss of a job. The infidelity of a spouse. The death of a child. Those are the major things we may admit to not having any control over, but just like the “smaller” things that we’ve learned to cope with and think we do have control over, these are all evidences of living in a fallen and broken world, and we have no power whatsoever to prevent them from happening. It all sounds fatalistic doesn’t it? But it doesn’t have to be.
In order to get up from the black couch in a better place than when we laid down, we need to understand one very important detail. The brokenness that surrounds us is the result of God’s goodness. That’s right. You read it correctly. Sin exists because God is good. Let me explain.
We’ve heard all too often, and maybe you’ve been saying too, that brokenness and pain and strife exists because God doesn’t exist. He isn’t real, otherwise, “Why are all these bad things happening to me?” When the world is falling down all around us, it’s natural to look outside yourself for answers. Something within you hopes that someone more powerful than you can slow things down, turn back time, or just make it all go away, and when it doesn’t you project your grief and anger on God. He failed you. He didn’t intervene, and if He was really good and loving the outcome would’ve been different. But was God really the one to blame?
I did say that sin exists because God is good. Hopefully that doesn’t make sense to you, but hopefully you’ll soon begin to understand. It’s true, God is good. Goodness is inherent to God’s character. He cannot NOT be good anymore than you can’t be a living human being reading this blog right now. Consequently, if God is inherently good, then according to the laws of logic, He cannot be the cause of pain and suffering. Well then if He’s not, who is?
Well, let’s go back to the beginning, at least as far back as man can go to understand the order of creation when God spoke and brought into existence everything that was created. Genesis 1 recounts the six days of creation and everything that God created was good and everything that could produce after its own kind was good, but one creation was set apart from the rest of His creation. When God created man, male and female, He created them in His own image. Not physically, but with the capacity to reason, dream, invent, and express emotion. With all of those good and unique qualities, the first man and woman, Adam & Eve were also given the capacity to choose. And God, being all kind and benevolent gave to Adam and Eve all they needed for life and happiness. There was no death, no pain, and no suffering because there was no sin…until…
Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world. The world that every person has desired. The world that God created. But in the creation of that perfect world, God established boundaries for the man and woman to obey. Now you may ask, “What’s the purpose of establishing boundaries if the world God created was perfect?” Relationship.
Relationship is by definition the way in which two or more people or groups regard and behave toward each other. God as Creator is superior to His creation. He created man. The parameters God established were given so that man would acknowledge His sovereign authority. This is not uncommon in our own day. Supervisors are warranted certain respect because of their position or title. The same goes for every branch of military service and even within the parent/child, professor/student relationship. And all function well until one person either abuses the authority they’ve been given or refuses to acknowledge the authority that’s been placed over them.
When God established parameters to obey, He did it for the good of man. Not as a punishment or to be cruel and unloving.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:15-17).
There it is. God gave two good commands. One positive and the other negative. Eat of every tree in the garden. Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then it happened. Eve was tempted by Satan. He put doubt into her mind.
“Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” … “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1b, 4b-5).
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate (Genesis 3:6).
In that moment, because of the disobedience of our progenitors sin entered into the world. From that day to today, sin is perpetuated every time mankind takes the good things God has created and violates the boundaries in which they were originally intended. For example, all truth is derived from God who is truth. When we distort what is true, we lie and therefore sin. We have taken what is good, the truth, and corrupted it by distorting reality. Any good gift of God can be distorted when it’s used contrary to God’s intention. Take food for example. God gives us food to help grow, maintain/repair our bodies, and for energy to work. But God’s purpose for food can be distorted when it becomes a substitute to provide comfort, pleasure, love, or friendship when you feel sad, lonely, or empty inside. When you use food as a substitute to satisfy your emotions, you’re attempting to satisfy a deeper need you have that can only be satisfied by God.
“If God exists, why doesn’t He intervene?”
The same thing can be said about the physical and emotional intimacy God has given as a good gift to be enjoyed within a heterosexual monogamous Christian marriage. That good gift is distorted when you fornicate, view pornography, commit adultery, or engage in any homosexual or trans relationship. Man’s sin is a vain attempt to fill a void that can only be satisfied by God. But the natural man looks upon all the distortions he has created and calls them good and right and beautiful, but God calls them sin.
Someone may ask, “If God exists, why doesn’t He intervene?” To answer that question, we must first acknowledge that all sin is birthed from the wicked desires that reside within the heart of every human being. For sin not to exist, man would have to cease to exist. But God, in His perfect patience withholds His wrath.
The Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
The life that you and I have been given is a good gift from God. When God allows you and me and any other person to live one more day, it’s because He is good. And because He is good, He will judge all sin. No sin has or ever will go unpunished. Any person who places their trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins has had their debt of sin, past, present, and future judged and paid in full. That happened when Christ satisfied God’s wrath by offering His sinless blood in their place at the cross of Calvary. Everyone else who refuses to trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins will have their sins judged by God when they die and will enter into eternal torment.
God is good. He is good in the giving of good gifts even though every person will distort them in one way or another and give birth to sin. God is good in His patience when He allows sinners one more day to repent. He is good when He extends His grace and forgives the sins of even one person because none of us are deserving of His forgiveness. God is good when He invokes His justice to judge the unrepentant for their own sins. Sin exists because God is good. But sin and death will one day cease and this life as we know will be no more. Every human being will have entered into eternity. Some to eternal glory and others to eternal condemnation, because God is good.
Providence Reformed Baptist Church 